


Lay Your Weary Head to Rest

by artenon



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Community: snkkink, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-01
Updated: 2013-08-01
Packaged: 2017-12-22 02:17:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/907702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artenon/pseuds/artenon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren saves Levi's life, at great risk of his own. Levi is not pleased. (kink meme fill, prompt inside)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lay Your Weary Head to Rest

**Author's Note:**

> snkkink meme fill for [this](http://snkkink.dreamwidth.org/2124.html?thread=2066252) prompt:  
> "I need a fic where they're out on a mission and Levi's 3DMG malfunctions, stranding him on the ground surrounded by titans and Eren, [who's] in his titan form, saves him. Or rather, he tries but there are too many of them so he picks Levi up and shields him with his body.  
> Points to the filler if it has a bit of angry (from Levi's part) cuddling afterwards."
> 
> I was just like, "I'll write an under 1k minifill." WELP.

Corporal Levi was Humanity’s Strongest Soldier. He’d been described as a one-man army. His combat skills were unparalleled. He knew how to maximize his damage output while minimizing his gas usage. His solo kill count was higher than his whole squad’s combined. But Levi was never one to boast, because he knew that no matter how skilled someone was, at the end of the day, their survival came down to sheer luck.

At the end of the day, it didn’t matter how skilled Levi was if his piece of shit faulty 3DMG decided to malfunction.

His thoughts were a litany of _shit, shit, fuck_ , as he fell to the ground unsupported, twisting around midair only to land awkwardly on his arm; pain lanced through the limb, and he grit his teeth against a scream of pain. Yeah, that was definitely broken. _Fuck._

He managed to clamber unsteadily to his feet, hefting his sword with his good hand. Not like he could do anything like this. There were five Titans surrounding him. Fucking hell.

Despite everything, he couldn’t help but hope that his death wouldn’t have been in vain. Had he done enough? There was no one around to give him empty reassurances, but maybe it was better that way. Because this was his bullshit end: Eaten by Titans because of his mal-fucking-functioning three-dimensional _fucking_ maneuver gear.

But just as one of the Titans was leaning down towards him, a roar split the air, and Levi recognized it as Eren in his Titan form.

He appeared a moment later, punching clean through the neck of the Titan reaching for Levi, and Levi jumped backwards to avoid getting showered in Titan blood.

Eren reared back and roared, and Levi took a moment to look at him; he looked worn and battered, and Levi was conflicted: On one hand, there was now a chance that he might actually survive this, but on the other, was Eren a fucking idiot? _His_ survival was priority, not Levi’s—would he even be able to fight off the four remaining Titans in his current state?

Eren considered first Levi, then the four remaining Titans surrounding him, and then lunged for Levi.

Shit, had he lost control of himself? Levi dodged to the side and nearly ran straight into the extending hand of another Titan. He stopped, trying to assess the situation, but the only thought he really had was a _Well, isn’t this just fucking peachy?_ above a background hum of _fuck, fuck, fuck_.

He hesitated, which was an idiotic move on his part, but it gave Eren time to scoop him up, and Levi found himself in darkness as the Titan hand closed in a loose fist. It was only then that he realized what Eren was doing.

“Eren, you idiot!” he yelled. How the hell was he supposed to fight with one hand?

The answer was _he couldn’t_ , and Levi was jostled around in Eren’s hand as his Titan body started taking hits left and right.

How fucking pointless was this? What was the use if they both died?

He kicked at Eren’s fingers.

“Eren, are you listening to me?!” he demanded. “Just leave me behind!”

Eren roared, but that wasn’t necessarily a response to him. Levi scowled.

He couldn’t tell what was happening, but it was safe to bet that Eren was trying to fight. He was also probably losing. At this point, if he ran, the Titans would just chase him, but if he dropped Levi—well, maybe then he would stand a fighting chance. But Eren was a fucking naïve brat who thought that he could survive anything and that he could save everyone, and unless backup arrived soon, it wouldn’t be long until they both died. Those were the facts, and Levi had to resign himself to them.

He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there, forced to cling to Eren’s finger to stay steady, only able to guess at what was going on around him, but it felt like a lifetime.

Was it just his imagination, or were Eren’s screams starting to sound more pained?

Eventually, there was a shift in movement, and he guessed that Eren had started running—if the staggering motion could be called that.

And then came the sensation of falling.

Levi braced himself—though he’d probably be crushed under Eren’s body anyway, so what was the point?—but when Eren’s body hit the ground, the impact was far less jarring than he’d been expecting. The hand he was in lowered gently and tucked close to Eren’s Titan chest before going slack.

Even on the verge of collapse, Eren was still only thinking of protecting him?

_Idiot_ , Levi thought.

He pushed Eren’s fingers aside, stepped carefully out onto solid ground, and turned to assess the situation.

…He’d never been gladder to see Hanji in his life, leading the backup forces in dispatching the remaining Titans.

_Lucky again_ , he thought as he staggered to the back of Eren’s Titan body. Steam had started to hiss from the body, meaning that Eren was about to emerge on his own; Levi was profusely glad that they wouldn’t have to cut him out.

He could see Eren now and, ignoring the heat, he hurried closer. Levi hooked his arm under Eren’s, wrapping his arm around his chest and hauling him out from the hissing Titan body. With only one arm, he ended up collapsing on his back with Eren a dead weight on top of him, but he hadn’t the energy to move. Instead, he just brought his fingers to Eren’s neck, feeling for a pulse. When he found it, he sighed in relief and closed his eyes. The adrenaline drained from his body and the pain in his broken arm came back tenfold. The last thing Levi did before blacking out was briefly tighten his fingers around Eren’s unconscious body.

 

Levi came to with a massive headache. Always a good way to start the day, whatever time it was.

When he tried to sit up, he realized that his right arm was bound and in a sling—right, he’d broken it.

“Shit,” he mumbled, rubbing temple with his left hand. He was okay. They’d survived.

They—

“Eren,” he said, remembering the still body lying on top of him like a phantom weight on his chest.

“He’s still out of it,” a voice said, and Levi turned his head to see Hanji sitting on a chair next to his bed.

He looked away, glaring at the ceiling. “Fucking brat ran himself to exhaustion.”

“He saved your life,” Hanji pointed out.

He had words ready on the tip of his tongue, but there was no point in arguing with Hanji. He was already going to have the same argument with Eren later, and since Eren was the one directly involved, Levi figured he should save his breath for him.

“What’s the situation?” he asked instead.

Hanji accepted the change of topic. “Well, you’re obviously going to be out of the action until your arm heals, so everything’s on standby while Commander Irvin figures out our next move.”

Right, his arm. His glare moved from the ceiling to his sling. He really was useless now, wasn’t he?

Levi wasn’t a strategist, like Irvin, or a scientist, like Hanji. He was a soldier, and without his arm…outside of being a soldier, he was nothing.

“I’m going to check on the brat,” he said, and sat up.

Hanji seemed to understand his need to get up and do something, if only briefly, and it was unnerving how she always seemed to get him, but he kind of appreciated it anyway.

“If he wakes up, make sure he doesn’t get up and start running around. And that goes for you, too,” she added, pointing accusingly at him—he hadn’t even gotten up from the bed yet. “You need your rest.”

“I just woke up,” Levi complained.

“Just trust me, okay?” Hanji said, ruffling his hair and skipping out of the room before he could retaliate.

Sighing, Levi pushed himself out of bed and made his way down to the dungeon, absently straightening his hair as he walked.

Eren was, as Hanji had said, still out of it. Even in sleep, his eyebrows were furrowed and the corners of his mouth were pulled down in a small frown. Feeling his forehead, Levi found that Eren was slightly feverish. Hopefully it wouldn’t be much to worry about, but he felt another surge of irritation that Eren had gone so far for him.

He stared at Eren’s sleeping face for a moment longer, then turned and brought a chair to sit by the bed. It wasn’t like he had anywhere else to be, and this way, he could make sure a lecture was the first thing Eren heard upon waking up.

He shifted in his chair, trying to get comfortable. Despite having just slept for fuck knew how many hours, he _was_ feeling kind of drowsy. Damn Hanji, always being right… He let his eyes drift shut for a moment.

 

“…Corporal?”

The voice saying his name was hoarse and soft, but Levi immediately jerked to awareness regardless. Wait, when had he fallen asleep—?

He blinked and looked to the bed to see Eren staring back at him, relief plain on his features.

“You’re okay.”

The look on Eren’s face, the genuine happiness, startled Levi. For a moment, he forgot himself, but oh, right, Levi was going to lecture him, wasn’t he?

“What the hell were you thinking?” he demanded, and confusion flashed across Eren’s face. Confusion and a hurt sort of anger.

“I was thinking that I had to save you, what the hell do you think?” Eren asked, pushing himself to sit up on the bed.

“You nearly died.”

“If I hadn’t done anything, _you_ would have died!”

“That was reckless and stupid,” Levi said, trying to keep a calm voice—but it was hard. Usually when he was pissed, he could still maintain a level voice, but somehow Eren could get this sort of response from him—the raised voice, the unsuppressed irritation.

Eren didn’t bother hiding his annoyance either, glaring openly at him. “Well, we both survived, so I don’t see what the problem is.”

“The problem is one day you’re going to kill yourself when you could have saved yourself,” Levi snapped. “Don’t you get it? You can’t save everyone, Eren.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying.”

Levi’s hand clenched into a fist. “My life doesn’t matter,” he said. “But if you had died, what would have happened to the plan? To saving humanity?”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I can’t think that far ahead,” Eren said hotly. “Yeah, I want to save all of humanity, but in the moment, when I’m out there fighting Titans, I can only think of who I can save _right now_ , and back then, all I could think was that I couldn’t let you die no matter what, so sorry for saving your life, but I don’t regret it.” He paused, then added, “And don’t fucking tell me your life doesn’t matter. If you talk like that, you’ve already lost.”

Levi stood up. Didn’t Eren _get it_? “It’s not like I _want_ to die. Are you even listening? But you can’t put my life above yours, Eren. You can’t.”

“Then stop putting mine above yours!” Eren said. “Why can’t we both survive? Why can’t we both—”

He broke off with a strangled noise, and Levi realized that he had started crying, tears silently slipping down his cheeks as his hands clenched his blanket, shoulders trembling.

Ah…the brat really was just fifteen years old, after all.

Taking quiet steps, Levi moved to stand beside the bed and rested his hand lightly on the crown of Eren’s head.

He’d held hands with the dying, helped to soothe their last moments, but he didn’t really know how to offer comfort, not to the living. For him, just the presence of someone he trusted and occasional light touches were enough (Hanji really did know him well). Words were never necessary for Levi.

But maybe Eren needed words.

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay,” Levi said awkwardly. “It’ll be okay.”

He pressed his lips to Eren’s forehead, then knelt on the bed so he could pull the boy to him. Eren didn’t protest, even burying his face into Levi’s shoulder as Levi stroked his back, pressing his cheek into Eren’s hair.

“We will definitely win,” he murmured. “We’ll exterminate all the Titans. You and your friends can see the outside world. We can go to the ocean, or anywhere you want. We’ll be free.”

It was bullshit, and he knew it and Eren must know it, but—fuck it, maybe they could both pretend that a happy ending was possible, one where everyone survived. One where they could save everyone.

Eren wasn’t the only one who was tired of everyone he cared about dying.

Levi stayed there that night, lying with his good arm wrapped around Eren’s shoulders as the boy clung to him, the both of them holding on tighter than they had to. He’d say that he stayed for the brat’s sake, but the truth was, Levi needed to be held just as much as Eren did. But that was just between the two of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact this fic was supposed to end with cute cuddles even though the original prompt called for angry cuddles but in the end they became sad cuddles wow.


End file.
